MONOCHROME Mini Competition #16

[wilgk]

Every kid under 10 yrs old in the deep south of NZ also learnt to drive on a massey ferguson such as these, so you're amongst friends....

[Colin Southern]

Every kid under 10 yrs old in the deep south of NZ also learnt to drive on a massey ferguson such as these, so you're amongst friends....

LOL - I was one of them!

[Donald]

Thanks guys. Good to know there were other hardened lawbreakers out there.

[Colin Southern]

Thanks guys. Good to know there were other hardened lawbreakers out there.

Umm - now that you mention it, I'm sure that I was 12 at the time! (the legal age for driving a tractor on a farm here in NZ).

In all honesty, I think health & safety experts would cringe at what were common practices back in those days - often hopping off and on tractors whilst they were going during feeding out (although we did have a steering wheel on the trailer that was jury-rigged to the nut at the centre of the steering wheel; I never did figure out why it didn't unscrew the nut during a hard left-hand turn!). Not to mention riding on the mudguard - towing up steep hills - riding farm bikes on icey races at 3:30am.

Guess I'm quite lucky to still be here!

[Dave Humphries]

VOTING now OPEN in this thread.

Before anyone cries "Foul, Ref, didn't you see that, what are you, blind or summat?" (English soccor joke, badly done as I don't watch footy)

Yes, I know there is a technical infringement of the rules here; there should only be two entries per person.

However, I have relaxed the rule for this one comp as I know Donald wouldn't have done it on purpose, and probably not without encouragement - the rule is there to cope with a problem we've not yet had; someone putting in lots and lots, to ensure winning.

Donald, Do not worry about this, let's leave things be.

Cheers,

[Donald]

Oops. I shall run through nettles naked (a sight to behold) , beat myself with sharpened sticks and sleep on beds of nails. Sorry!

[carregwen]

Oops. I shall run through nettles naked (a sight to behold) , beat myself with sharpened sticks and sleep on beds of nails. Sorry!

I noticed it at the time, but I thought it far too vulgar for this forum to actually point it out. (insert you have got to be kidding smilie here) That forum across the pond starting with a 'P' would have started WW3 over it by now.

[rolandjo]

Hello to all,



well, this is my fist post on this forum and my first Ugly building picture.
I will be glad to receive your remarks.

Roland

[Donald]

Roland

Welcome to C in C forums. Unfortunately you have posted your picture into a thread that is now closed. You should re-post it to MONOCHROME Mini Competition #17. I do not have permissions to move your image, or I would have done so.

Each of these Mini Competitions is for 10 images only. Once there are 10 images in the thread, we start a new thread. And then other people will be able to comment and vote on your picture.

It is confusing to start with, but once you spend some time on the site with us, you will get used to it. It is good to have you join and I hope you enjoy it.

Donald

[rolandjo]

Donald,

Thank you for your reply and warm welcome,
Oops, my mistake, I always forgot to read the rules.
I need to quote you

I shall run through nettles naked, beat myself with sharpened sticks and sleep on beds of nails. Sorry again!

I will be happy to be a part of this community.

All the best,

Roland

[carregwen]

Congrats, Jeroen. You scraped in there just ahead of me. Good shot.

[Donald]

Congrats, Jeroen. ... Good shot.

I agree.

And the moral of this story is that cheating doesn't pay (see post #25 above)!

as I know Donald wouldn't have done it on purpose, and probably not without encouragement

See, I wuz robbed! I was forced into doing something against my will, as Dave has written. And have been forced to pay the price. I demand a recount!

[Dave Humphries]

We used to offer feedback (after voting has closed) once upon a time, but we seem to have gotten out of the habit, here's my personal taken on these 10 entries, each written in no more than a minute or two, so apologies if that means I'm blunt.

I don't 'do' what half you do, so I'm no better qualified than many others here to comment, these are just how they strike me, also remember I'm not "right", I'm just me.

Rob - Fishing at the wreck
Everything works for me, can't make a useful suggestion, great, even down to unusual placement of the caption. My favourite of the ten.

Donald - Road, Walls and Fences
Unusally for the master of black and white, this looks a little flat, I think it is more an impression than a fact because the blackest blacks and whitest whites are both very small areas, so don't register, I suspect it looks fine on the histogram (I haven't looked)

Carol - Malaysian Pottery
I think the composition is fine of the central area, but for my taste, the border is too wide, however, I can see why you have the inner pic where it is, so if possible, reduce the border width from the outside edge coming in, by about half.

Kay - Drift
This could have been better, I'm not sure what's not optimal about it, it could be;
composition1 - I think I'd have liked the water to be a little further to right
composition2 - not cut one of those foreground rocks in half
time of day - perhaps shoot a little earlier
exposure - the sun and sky near it is, not surprisingly, blown
It shows considerable promise though and would be worth a few reshoots with alternative times, angles and so on to see what works best, assuming you can get back to it

Larry - Silo Buckle
The placement of the two things of interest within the frame seems odd, perhaps try moving to camera left? (there's probably a reason why you didn't) and perhaps combined with shooting a little later so the contrasty grain bit moves to left also

Donald - The Vintage Vehicle Rally 2010 (2), Islay
To be honest, it just looks like a rural scene to me, perhaps I'm behind the times, only minor suggestion to simplify would be to clone out the half a sheep from behind rear tractor's wheel. I also wondered what it would look like with road more level and field going 'up' to right, may not be accurate, but I wouldn't know. Good toanl range, although an additional bit of LCE on background bushes might help.

Peter - Sea Defence
Perhaps a little more LCE? I'm unsure, nothing wrong with it, so no helpful suggestions really

Jeroen - Time passes
My only minor comment is that the nearby (oof) straight twig that appears to run along the left hand trunk like a cable is a tad distracting. Nice

Rob - Invasion of the Dachshunds
Well observed, captured and titled, perhaps a slight dodge of the foreground shadow from the two closest dawgs would help lift that bottom edge?

Donald - The Vintage Vehicle Rally 2010 (1), Islay
For me, it needs to be big, at 700px, it just doesn't work and looks like slow moving traffic on a country road. Much better at 1200px.

I hope y'all don't mind me speaking out,

[JK6065]

First of all, thank you for all your votes. I'm not sure if I deserve the win but to be quite honest: I don't mind

I think mine does look ok, though I didn't look to it as a real winner. Though it encourages me to shoot some long exposure bw water shots.

Thank you Rob and Donald for your congratulations and thank you Dave for your comment.

I think I'm going to follow your example and try to say something useful about all of them.

Edit:

Rob,
At first, I really lake the layers in your composition. I like the darker front and back and the graduate black to white towards the middle. You always amaze me with beautiful BW conversion in means of contrasts. A broad range from black to white and the level of lightness add up to the composition. To me, this one in particular lacks a bit in the composition. The layers do work but I think the object seems to be a little random placed. I see a diagonal at the front through the post, and a diagonal in the fishing gear. The y would be nice if they were used to guide the viewers eyes, instead of being placed in the middle.
Though I think this would be the winner for me.

Donald,
I like how all the little pieces of the landscape work together. The road, the fences, the bumps and relief of the road and along the road. They add up as a good spot for photographing I think. Though I think the composition could be improved if you placed the road more in the same direction as the direction the viewer watches. It could be a useful piece the draw the viewer's eye through the typical landscape. I also find the image a bit flat. It needs some more contrast I think.

Carol,
I like the idea of the combination of the small image and the larger version behind it and the composition is ok. It looks a bit rough in execution (maybe you could blend it some more into each other instead of pasting it on top). And just out of interest, what did you do in post processing? Did you raised the contrast for the black and white look? I can still see some colour at the white edges.

Kay,
This photo looks like you took it at a place with a lot of potential. I like the fading tree line and the edge of the water running in a curve towards the same point. The sand at the foreground ad as a nice detail. Though the trees are about completely black and the sky is blown out white at the left. As a suggestion I would say you take this shot again whit the sun more from behind. This would help against the blown out white sky and ad some light to the trees. I think some more water in the shot would improve it also.

Larry,
This one look different than others and I like that though it lack as bit interest for me. Also I think it would benefit form some more contrast.

Donald #2,
I like the scene here. It looks piece-full and quite, a nice countryside view. But I keep wondering if the photo isn't tilting a bit to the right. I know I can't tell from this crop, but it might look better if it didn't. I'm not sure.

Peter,
Those diagonal diverting lines work very well, though I wonder whether the it look better if the vanishing point was inside the frame. The horizon also look quite centred, which might do better at a third. And personal I'm not the fan of noise, so I always remove it with neat image, but that's for your own taste.

Rob #2
I don't exactly know how the scene looked like but I think the photo would benefit from getting the line of the couches in more prominent. I like the brown tint over it, it suits the surface of the couches (or whatever they might be). Maybe a less square crop would look fine, and I find the circles at the left top a bit distracting (somehow when I discover something like this in a photo I barely can watch it again without my eye drawing towards it).

Donald #3
Well, this one would be a nice photo for the head quarters of the old-timer rally club. I like how it's not a single car shot as a normal old timer rally shot. The landscape around it fits nice to the cars as being piece full and nice to be a spectator of.


I want to encourage the winners of mini competitions to do as I do and comment on the other candidates. It's good to think about what you see, and what you would do to it. And I think receiving comments on your work is also helpful.